This is a hybrid role with expectation of working in either our Kidlington or Jarrow office 2-3 days per week.

Essentra’s global Technology team’s vision is to create an amazing customer and employee experience, built on a modern, secure infrastructure, effective workspace tools and highly engaged, customer-focused support. We are a customer focussed, technology and data driven business and recognise the key role outstanding technology professionals play in helping us achieve our goal.

The Head of Digital and Applications is accountable implementing and delivering the strategy and roadmaps for our key digital and business applications. The delivery of the technology elements for our Digital Products and Business Applications are critical in delivery of strategic initiatives within Essentra. The role covers a broad range of Technology solutions and will need to work very closely with business stakeholders to understand requirements and how the team enable the delivery of commercial growth targets.

The Head of Digital and Applications leads the team that has responsibility for Digital technologies through the innovation, investigation, analysis, and transformation of data, systems, activities, processes, and information security. This is a role that requires understanding of the Essentra’s business and strategy and the ability to translate that into a digital platform and applications strategy. To be successful the team needs to understand business requirements (functional and non-functional) by working with product teams and business stakeholders. Core to this will be ensuring that service delivery is to the agreed levels, ensuring that the business has the digital products, tools and applications it needs to succeed,

The Head of Digital and Applications will work to ensure that commercial and operational teams clearly understand the products and solutions being delivered and is able to communicate technical concepts to a non-technical audience. This is a role that will operate in a fast moving, dynamic environment working cross functionally to support the different business functions.

This is a key role in the Technology Leadership Team, reporting directly to the CDIO. The Head of Application Management will lead a high functioning team responsible for all application services from inception through design, implementation, maintenance and retiral, and which embodies a culture of continuous improvement.  

Responsibilities

• Accountable for the vision and technical strategy for digital products, the application estate and data that enables the Essentra business strategy
• Service provision and management of business applications to the Essentra business
• Deliver an operating model to embed digital and data into the application portfolio, enabling a product-led organisation
• Support innovation to drive business value through growth initiatives and incorporate new technology developments
• Lead multiple team, delivering innovation, coaching and development of the team to deliver great service levels and support to the Essentra business. Own the overall skills matrix, training and succession plans for the team so that the overall capability is fit for purpose
• Work with other leaders and business stakeholders in Essentra to understand how Technology can better partner with the business
• Lead and manage the Digital Delivery team, a hybrid team of internal and external resources, providing strategic leadership and direction to enable the delivery teams to meet their objectives
• Rationalise the legacy application estate to focus on new development of our business and data capabilities
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement in delivery approach, technology choices and execution. Champion and/ embed Agile delivery methodology, DevOps, Lean, and other key drivers of Digital culture
• Provide technical and functional expertise in resolving business operations issues related to Digital Products and line of business systems/applications
• Provide professional leadership to the Application Team, coaching senior team members to develop the skills required to meet the needs of the organisation and engender a culture of professional development
• Partner with HR to ensure robust performance/talent management and succession planning processes are in place to support growth for both individuals and the business 
• Champions IT governance adoption and compliance with policies and standards to maintain consistency and reduced risk across IT applications service and solution delivery 

Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree qualified preferably Engineering or IT
• Project Management (PMI Agile certified)
• Software development certifications in Microsoft or Java (desirable)
• Certified ITIL Manager (desirable) 
• Certified TOGAF Enterprise Architect (desirable)
• Qualification on Azure &/or AWS applications or software development and release (desirable)
• Proven track record of leading the delivery of enterprise-class application services in a complex organisation to support the organisation’s strategic imperatives 
• Experience of architecting, designing, building and maintaining a robust application estate which meets industry best practice and is accredited by a professional body 
• Expert in leading diverse high-performing teams to a common set of goals and objectives, setting the vision and culture which is congruent with the organisation’s values and behaviours   
• Developed business cases for investment for sign off at executive level    
• Has led strategic partnerships with suppliers, internal customers and external stakeholders 
• Comfortable working with autonomy and in an environment with constant interruptions, with guidance in only the most complex situations.
• Experience of supporting IT services in line with ITIL frameworks and toolsets
• Able to identify, prioritise, and solve complex infrastructure and application issues with strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Solid experience in application support and related field
• Experience with supporting/enhancing various ERP systems
• Experience implementing middleware solutions using Microsoft Azure Integration Services
• Experience managing change to legacy architectures
• Flexibility to work outside of core business hours when required
• Reliable, with strong time management and self-organisational skills
• Experience of managing globally dispersed teams and individuals
• Understand multi-cultural and diverse working environments - across continents, religions, local working practices, beliefs

What we offer

• Competitive Salary
• Private Medical Insurance (Family Cover)
• Car Allowance
• Discretionary Annual Bonus
• LTIP
• Up to 5% matched pension contribution
• 4x annual salary life assurance
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Employee discounts through Edenred
• Eyecare Vouchers
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

Essentra plc is a FTSE 250 company and a leading global provider of essential components and solutions, focusing on the manufacture and distribution of plastic injection moulded, vinyl dip moulded and metal items.

Headquartered in the UK, Essentra's global network extends to 28 countries worldwide and includes over 3,000 employees, 14 manufacturing facilities, 24 distribution centres and 33 sales & service centres serving c.74,000 customers with a rapid supply of low cost but essential products for a variety of applications in industries such as equipment manufacturing, automotive, fabrication, electronics, medical and renewable energy.

At Essentra we are ideally looking for individuals who enjoy working as part of a close team, are passionate about what they do and who strive to make a difference. We are always looking to better ourselves and are keen to recruit individuals who like to innovate and improve processes.

As part of our recruitment process you will be required to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Documentary evidence will be requested at interview.